


Good Cop: Another Evening Down the Pub

by Kalypso



Series: Sort of trilogy, about evenings, which eventually acquired a fourth part [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-30
Updated: 2011-06-30
Packaged: 2018-01-03 08:13:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1068130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalypso/pseuds/Kalypso
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Down the pub, John and Lestrade continue to discuss the reform of Sherlock Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Cop: Another Evening Down the Pub

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for Rupert Graves' 48th birthday - a short 221b piece prompted by his role as DI Lestrade in _Sherlock_ , its difference from some of his other roles, and in particular its difference from a role that, as far as I know, he never played, but he damn well should have done. It turned into a sort of sequel to [Off Duty](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1068014), so it's the fourth part of the sort-of trilogy about evenings (if Douglas Adams can do it, why can't I?)

"This thing," said John, as they settled down with their pints.

"What thing?" asked Lestrade.

"This turning-Sherlock-into-a-good-man thing."

"Yes?"

"You think it's my job. But I don't see how to do it if he hasn't got it already."

"People don't change?"

"Bet _you_ always had a sense of public duty."

Lestrade nearly spilt his beer laughing. "Me? When I was a kid, I wanted to be Rupert of Hentzau."

"Rupert of what?"

"Swashbuckling villain in an old book my mum used to read me. Handsome, brilliant fencer, blackmailer, killer, love-rat... I was going to live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse."

Well, he'd probably still manage the last of those, thought John. "So who reformed _you_?"

"My first victim - the way she looked at me like I was a piece of dirt just when I meant to walk off laughing. Plus the first person who looked at me with gratitude when I did something useful, like I was someone who mattered."

"Sherlock doesn't look at people after he's deduced them."

"Doesn't matter. He looks at you. It's what he sees in _your_ eyes that's going to steer him."

"How did I get into this?"

"Sense of public duty."

Watching Lestrade's eyes dance, John thought he knew how Rupert of Hentzau looked after a nifty bit of fencing or blackmail. "Bastard!"

**Author's Note:**

> By the time I learned that the 221b format had been defined as "221 words, the last one beginning with B", I had already found myself writing all my fic in this fandom in multiples of 111, so my version of it is "221 words plus an extra one beginning with B". In case this offends anybody, I offer an optional one-word cut: "So" from the line "So who reformed you?"


End file.
